


Nightlight

by orphan_account



Series: Nightlight [1]
Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series)
Genre: Best Friends, Fluff, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Getting Together, Haunted Houses, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Love Confessions, M/M, Mutual Pining, Paranormal Investigators
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-21
Updated: 2017-09-21
Packaged: 2018-12-26 10:33:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12057183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: The boys stay at the allegedly haunted Queen Anne Hotel, where Shane confesses to a job proposal he had a few days prior and causes an emotional chain-reaction.





	Nightlight

Shane didn’t think Ryan would ever learn to relax on overnight ghost hunts and for the umpteenth time found himself wondering why Ryan ever suggested or agreed to them in the first place. It was both endearing and frustrating. Mostly the former, he mused as he held up his camera and watched the smaller man who was reclined rigidly on his side of the big double bed in their hotel room. That room just so happened to be room 410 of the Queen Anne Hotel.

The Mary Lake suite was roomy, lavish, visibly and tangibly historical and decorated with reds, pinks, and golds. Just the bed itself was something to behold, draped with fine quilts and satin sheets with a feature, ornate headboard. Ryan had earlier claimed that the overwhelming sense of the hotel’s vast history, the souls that had wandered its halls and rooms over time, just added to his fear. The beauty of it all did nothing to appease the anxiety coiled in his gut. Shane would lend him more pity if it wasn’t for the fact that it was Ryan’s choice to be there, but he quietly observed his subtle twitches and wide eyes with a soft, amused, lazy smile that tugged up the corners of his mouth. His best friend was an utterly ridiculous man who jumped at his own shadow, and not for the first time Shane reminded himself that he wouldn’t change Ryan for anything.

As they lay there, Shane’s mind wandered to a few days prior of their stay. He’d been propositioned, offered a shot at an interview with a similar company to the one he and Ryan worked for. The pay was slightly higher, his responsibilities in their office would be similar in content, their online reach was pretty impressive, and it was a shorter ways to travel every day. Any logical person would have bitten the employer’s hand off, and Shane usually prided himself on being logical, yet he’d turned the offer down in less than five minutes. It had been an easy choice and he hadn’t regretted it once, but he’d neglected to mention it to anyone. Including Ryan.

“I’m not feeling this, man,” Ryan spoke up in a hushed voice. He was facing the ceiling with his eyes squeezed shut. “I feel like I’m being watched.” He wasn’t wrong, Shane commented mentally as he took in his friend’s worried features and chewed on his lip thoughtfully.

“Just relax, there’s nothing in here but us and a bunch of old furniture,” Shane replied casually and his comforting tone seeped out like it often did in those situations, though he couldn’t help but work in a ribbing joke. “Unless our girl Mary is chilling between us right now, getting herself some Madej-Bergara sandwich action.” He laughed and the camera shook slightly with him.

Ryan didn’t break face as his restlessness grew and he immediately scooted once, twice towards Shane from beneath the bed covers. “Sorry Mary, we don’t share our bed with ghosts,” he muttered in a shaky voice as he brought the covers further up to cover his chin. His eyes switched from being huge saucers that darted around the room to being as tightly shut as they could be.

Shane promptly decided to ignore the casual use of ‘we’ and ‘our’ and smoothly dished out more of his wiseguy shtick routine. “Hey,” he said from behind his camera as he kept it trained on his friend’s face, “you could be like, crushing her right now, that’s a little rude. She’s just trying to get some paperwork done, probably.”

He was met with a disapproving look as Ryan peered at him from behind his glasses, his eyebrows raised. “Actually shut the fuck up, Shane,” he warned, but Shane felt a pleasant warmth bloom in his chest when he saw that Ryan couldn’t keep away the small smile that crept onto his face.

Shane shrugged and said nothing else, just returned the smile. After a few moments, he shut the camera off and set it down and hoped that would be the end of that for the night.

“Oh, are we done?” Ryan asked.

Shane only hummed tiredly in response. He could already feel the pull of sleep on his eyes, lids heavier and features more sloppy and slack. The welcome body heat of Ryan beside him and the heavy blankets he was tucked into were the deciding factors in his drowsiness as they enveloped him in a sweet cosiness. He adjusted his head against his pillow and let out a yawn.

“I didn’t tell you this, but I was offered an interview the other day,” Shane said gently, voice mellow and unguarded with the soft promise of sleep to follow. He saw Ryan perk up a little beside him as his friend’s eyebrows rose and he turned his head on his respective pillow to face him.

“What, like, an online piece?” Ryan asked curiously. He propped himself up on his elbow.

Shane shook his head no. “For a job,” he clarified.

“Oh.”

Shane watched as Ryan lowered himself to the bed again to rest on his side, still facing Shane with his eyes looking anywhere but. The expression on his friend’s face was a little stung and saddened, but it appeared Ryan was trying to get a hold of his reaction.

“For a different company,” Shane explained. “Better pay, closer to my apartment, pretty much the same job. They have a pretty good following, too, it was one hell of an offer.” He hammed it up, inwardly curious as to Ryan’s reaction. “They seemed pretty impressed with me. Can’t blame ‘em.”

Ryan was back to his rigid state, eyes permanently downcast. It was almost as if he suddenly wanted the space between them back again but couldn’t figure out how to get his body to cooperate, so instead he remained glued to his spot on the bed with a wounded look that he tried, to his merit, to cover up with a faltering smile. He’d seemingly dismissed his previous fear for the moment.

“Sounds good, man,” Ryan said, and his voice was audibly strained.

Shane couldn’t bring himself to continue the torment as he tilted his head against the pillow below him and smiled in spite of himself. “Emphasis on the ‘was’ part. I turned ‘em down.” He almost chuckled at the way Ryan’s head lifted again, eyes searching.

“You did?” He was incredulous then. “Why?”

In their time working together, Shane had heard some pretty silly things leave Ryan Bergara’s mouth, from preposterous theories about deaths and demons, to lame jokes after a few drinks or impressions of washed-up celebrities. He was almost certain that his friend’s latest question topped them all, and Shane couldn’t help the fond laugh that finally escaped his lips into the small space between them.

“I gotta hand it to you, Bergara, nobody could write your script,” he teased.

The look on Ryan’s face shifted to bemusement. “Why’d you turn it down?” He asked again.

“Because I’m happy where I am,” he replied, and Shane would have been lying to himself if he said he was solely talking about his workplace in general. He was happy right there, in a comfortable bed with his best friend, someone he trusted more than most. He was happy to be vulnerable, stripped to his pyjamas, talking quietly in the lamplight with Ryan. He was happier on those trips than he was most other times, having an adventure he never could have predicted.

Ryan looked lost. “Seems a little hasty to just pass up an opportunity like that, though,” he said.

Shane frowned. He’d expected Ryan to be happy at the news he’d be staying, that he wanted to remain where he was to keep working together, that all those perks couldn’t get him to budge. Instead Ryan criticised his choice to turn down the offer. Did he want him to leave? Did he want another new co-host? Surely not, he thought, not going by his initial reaction.

“Hey, what gives? You could look a little happy that your ol’ pal Shane isn’t going anywhere,” he said as he tried to make light of the situation. He regretted choosing that moment to bring it all up. He should have just waited until they were back home instead of sharing a room - a bed - in a supposedly haunted hotel.

A pair of softened eyes met Shane’s, a familiar kindness to them. “No, I am! I am, of course I am, you know I love this. Us. I mean– You know, doing the show, sharing an office, being friends. I wouldn’t want that to change, but– This isn’t about me, or anyone else, and I just worry that…” He trailed off, flustered beyond belief as his chest rose and fell a little more harshly than before.

Worry. Ryan was worried - and did worry - about this? Shane found that more than a little concerning and something in him gave a pang of emotion. He reached out an awkward hand until gentle fingertips touched Ryan’s arm.

“You worry what? You don’t have to worry, Ry,” Shane assured. His voice was low and calm.

Ryan was frustrated and visibly upset but he didn’t recoil from the touch. He kept his gaze steadily fixed on Shane’s pillow. Shane withdrew his hand and waited.

Eventually, Ryan spoke. “I worry you don’t enjoy this as much as I do, that I’m just pulling you along into things you don’t believe in and you don’t want to admit it to me. I worry you could be doing something you actually want to do instead of fooling around with me in old buildings.”

“I dunno, I wouldn’t mind some foolin’ around in old buildings,” Shane commented, relishing it when he caught Ryan off-guard and made the younger man wheeze in surprise.

“Shut up. I’m serious right now, Shane. Do you really wanna keep doing this? It’s okay to say no.” He curled in on himself more, as if he awaited bad news and wanted to shield himself from it.

Shane couldn’t believe what he heard. Ryan edited their videos, was there in every moment with him, yet he was worried Shane didn’t actually want a part in it? Had he somehow missed all the laughter and smiles, the jokes and the jibes, the memories they made? It was true that Shane was a sceptic, reluctant to credit anything to the supernatural when there were other explanations more grounded in sound logic and reason, but he loved every second he spent in Ryan’s company and he found genuine joy in the work they did. He loved travelling and soaking up history, seeing places he’d never usually go, documenting it all forever and being incredibly goofy along the way. Their friendship had grown tenfold since they’d started working on the show together and Shane wouldn’t trade it for anything, especially not another job where he’d be removed from it completely and, though the thought made his gut twist funnily, possibly replaced.

Shane blinked. He returned his hand to Ryan’s arm but the touch was bolder and more deliberate, long fingers curling loosely around firm muscle. The younger met his eyes, blatant hope residing there. All Shane could do was smile around his words. “I don’t want another job and I don’t wanna stop doing this with you. We have fun, our audience has fun, it’s one of the best things I’ve ever done to be honest. It works.” He squeezed Ryan’s arm once. “We work.”

Ryan offered him a flash of a toothy smile. “I thought so too.”

Shane laughed at that, patted Ryan’s arm and pulled his hand back. “You’re an idiot. Were you really worried I didn’t wanna be here? Listen, I’d fucking tell you if I’d reached my limit. I think I’ve got a ways to go yet though. I figured I’d draw the line at you thinking you’re possessed or I’m actually a devil in disguise.”

“I could believe the second one,” Ryan mused. “It would explain a fucking lot, actually.”

The older man wheezed out a laugh at that. “First you wanna kill me, now you think I’m a demon? Gee, thanks Ryan,” he joked.

Ryan grinned. “You do have devilish qualities.”

Shane quirked an eyebrow. “But you’re not shit scared of me.”

“Eh, your stupid face kinda takes the edge off. It’s like, the least scary face a demon could have picked. They really weren’t on their best game when they possessed you.” Ryan couldn’t stop how his body shook with laughter on the bed.

Still playing along, Shane shrugged. “Marilyn Manson was too busy so they got me.” He was acutely aware of how they’d somehow gotten even closer during their bouts of giggles, so much so that he could feel Ryan’s breath hit his face.

“I love how you’re the immediate back-up choice in this scenario. Just Marilyn Manson and then you.” He wheezed again and doubled over. Shane was surprised when Ryan’s head fell against his chest as a result, the younger continuing to giggle against him.

He glanced down at the top of Ryan’s head and smiled to himself, quietly appreciating his friend’s closeness and the ease in which he let himself be vulnerable and near. They always fell into each other’s space, sought it out like moths to a flame, and they always felt better for it. Shane knew their friendship was a nightlight for Ryan whenever they stayed at “haunted” locations, knew he was a comfort and a relief. He was useful for more than just mockery and sarcasm; he kept Ryan grounded and, when he could, calmer than he’d be without him. There he was, making Ryan giggle against his front when not half an hour ago, he’d been restless and afraid. At the thought, Shane’s chest bloomed with warmth where Ryan’s forehead made contact through his thin t-shirt.

Ryan’s voice was suddenly there in the quiet. “I’m glad you’re not going anywhere,” he murmured. When he pulled back, Shane felt the loss instantly, but it was pushed to the back of his mind when he was met with a pair of soft, kind eyes. “I don’t think I wanna do this with anybody else.” The sincerity dripped from his words and Shane felt his insides melt a little.

“You won’t have to,” he replied, and for the life of him he couldn’t keep eye contact any longer. All the places they’d visited that put the fear factor into so many people and he was fine, but Ryan’s open expression of hope was too much to bear even for him and he crumbled beneath it.

Ryan opened his mouth to speak, but whatever words he had in store died in his throat when a low creak sounded behind him from beyond the safe confines of the bed. Shane watched as Ryan’s eyes widened with recognition which quickly transformed to fear. His lips remained parted and he stared at Shane, silently questioning.

The most obvious answer was the walls naturally moaning and groaning from age, the sound “spookier” and more amplified by the shadows that filled the room and the relative silence they otherwise had amongst their quiet conversation.

Shane rolled his eyes. “It was probably just the building settl–”

Two dull, deep thuds followed another creak in the darkness.

“Shane,” Ryan whispered, voice wobbly.

Shane looked down at Ryan who was still close to his chest. “Ryan, an old building like this is gonna make noise. Nothing you haven’t heard before. Just the bones of the place settling, that’s all. Walls do that too.” Of course, he knew that explanation wasn’t going to appease Ryan’s growing anxiety and fear, but it was the likely simple truth.

“Yeah,” Ryan said, sounding anything but convinced.

The older man sighed. “Look, I’ll prove it,” he said. “Demons! Ghosts! If you’re here, if that was you, why don’t you bang again? Make a little creak noise? Sing us a song? We’re listening!” He kept steady eye contact with Ryan when he finished taunting the supposed spirits, eyebrows raised in mock-expectancy.

Ryan stared at him like he wanted to murder him on the spot for being so brazen and nonchalant about the whole thing, but he was apparently too afraid to voice his distaste and instead opted to quietly simmer in a mix of frustration and terror. It was clear he was straining to listen for something, anything, that would ultimately send him packing and fleeing from the hotel.

However, after a long few seconds of nothing but quiet stretched out, Shane smiled triumphantly and nudged Ryan’s arm. “See? It’s just you and me,” he teased. “Now can you calm down a little?”

With the worst possible timing, a few more thuds and creaks sounded. All Shane registered was Ryan’s repeated mantra of, “No, no, no,” and his friend’s head shaking rapidly, then a blur as he flew up from the bed. “I can’t do this, I’m out.”

As Ryan clambered off the large bed, Shane sat up and reached out a long arm turn on the lamp on the bedside table. Soft light illuminated the room and Shane saw Ryan headed to his suitcase which lay on the floor opposite the foot of the bed. Shane sighed. He couldn’t let him pack up at a few bumps in the night - easily explainable ones at that - and so he pulled back his side of the covers and got out of bed. He made the few long strides to Ryan, bare feet padding on thick carpet.

“I’m giving up dude,” Ryan told him shakily as Shane approached.

“Hey, no you’re not,” Shane replied firmly, and then he reached out and drew the smaller man into his arms, effectively bundling him to his chest.

Relief flooded Shane’s thudding heart when Ryan slid tentative arms around his waist to hold on. He rested his cheek on Shane’s chest and linked his hands at the small of Shane’s back, and they stood like that for a minute before Shane broke the silence.

“It’s just an old, creaky building. I promise it’s just you and me, and I’m right here, see?” He drew back from the embrace to look Ryan in the eyes, smiling earnestly. “Nothing’s gonna happen.”

He watched Ryan swallow his nerves as he tried to gain some composure. He remained still, regarding Shane with vulnerable weariness and a touch of something else he couldn’t place, but after a few moments his shoulders slumped in tired defeat. Shane expected reluctant agreement as he moved back slightly from the hug, but that’s not what he received.

“I can’t help getting scared,” Ryan said with a shrug. “I try not to but it never works, and I guess that’s partly why I keep doing this to myself. I wanna eventually be like, less scared of it.”

Shane nodded. “Sound logic, but you know to achieve that you gotta actually stick it out all night when we do this? Can’t keep running away like Scooby Doo every time you hear a little noise.”

Ryan rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, laugh it up. It’s not like you don’t have fears.”

Amused, Shane held his hands up in surrender. “Hey, never said I didn’t, I’m just saying you gotta try a little harder, man. Build up that ghost resistance.” He laughed at his words, eyes crinkled.

Despite himself, Ryan laughed too. “Shut up, Shane,” he threw back.

“Happily,” Shane said. “Can we go back to bed now?”

Ryan frowned. “Can I make a suggestion though?”

“Go on.”

“We scrap making a pillow divider. I’m getting as close to you as I can, man, no shame. It’s my deal-breaker. I don’t care what you say, this place and this room gives me the creeps,” Ryan said.

Shane wheezed out a laugh as he walked back towards the bed and Ryan followed. “Sure, man, whatever you want,” he replied, as though he wasn’t absolutely thrilled at the idea. No. Not at all.

They climbed back into the welcome heat of the covers and Shane let out a groan of comfort as he settled on his back, hands rested on his stomach, and stretched out his long legs, for once fully accommodated by the luxuriously large bed. Within seconds, true to his word, Ryan scooted shamelessly close to Shane on his side and brought his pillow with him.

“Hey,” Shane said with a soft, slightly amused smile as he tilted his head to greet him. He could feel the warmth of Ryan against him where their legs brushed and Ryan’s front was a whisper away from being flush against his arm. “You wanna make this a bit less awkward?” He asked, then he lifted up the arm closest to Ryan and beckoned him closer. “C’mere.”

Ryan regarded him and laughed. “What, that makes this less awkward?”

Shane nodded. “Yeah, actually. Trust me. Better than you creepin’ on me like that.”

With that, Ryan just shrugged and shuffled the remaining distance right into Shane’s embrace, who lowered his arm again to wrap securely around Ryan’s back. To Ryan’s surprise, it was much less awkward, and he hated to admit how safe he found he felt as his cheek rested against soft cotton and he savoured the scent of Shane’s fading cologne and deodorant. He draped an arm casually over Shane’s stomach, right below where Shane’s other arm rested too.

“You wanna keep the light on?” Shane asked, voice rumbling through his chest where Ryan was.

“Nah,” Ryan said after a moment, “I’ll just throw you to the ghosts if they come for me.”

“Nice. Never let it be said you’re not a great friend, Bergara,” Shane replied as he reached to turn the light off again without letting go of Ryan, and then they were plunged into darkness once more with nothing but milky moonlight that dripped through the windows.

Shane felt Ryan shift minutely against him, then his voice. “Thank you,” Ryan murmured.

“Anytime.”

“I really am glad you’re not going anywhere, y’know.”

“I know,” Shane said. He slowly rubbed Ryan’s back a few times lightly through his t-shirt.

As he did so, Ryan shifted again so his face was tucked more firmly against Shane’s front, and the arm across Shane’s stomach retreated just enough so that his hand could blindly find his friend’s beneath the privacy of the covers. Shane curled their fingers together and squeezed once.

“This okay?” Shane asked as he ran his thumb along Ryan’s.

Ryan hummed his quiet affirmation and a moment later, Shane felt him gently grasp his chin with his fingertips and turn his face toward him. In a heartbeat, Ryan lifted himself a little and their lips brushed together. They both paused briefly after the first kiss, waiting to see if the other would pull away, and when they didn’t they fell back together again.

Shane turned fully onto his side, keeping a hold of Ryan the whole time with his arm around him. Their linked hands turned to their arms thrown over each other’s sides as each warm kiss melted into another, breaths short and heavy between each one. They followed the warm, damp pull of each other’s mouths, and Ryan revelled in the slight scratch of Shane’s stubble against his skin as they broke apart with a soft noise.

As they caught their breaths briefly, Shane brought their foreheads to rest together.

“So. That happened,” Ryan said heavily, unable to stop the giggles that bubbled up his throat.

“You’re ridiculous,” Shane replied, catching Ryan’s lips quickly again.

Ryan grinned. “It’s part of my charm though. You love it.”

“I love _you_ ,” Shane corrected without missing a beat.

Pleasantly surprised, Ryan’s grin softened to an indulgent smile. He dragged his fingertips up and down Shane’s side lazily and blinked his big eyes once, twice. “I love you too,” he said finally.

“That’s pretty fortunate,” Shane remarked, and Ryan wheezed right before Shane dipped his head to kiss him again. Their lips curved together with their dopey smiles, happy and content, and the supposed spirits of the Queen Anne Hotel went on forgotten until morning.


End file.
